Japan’s ‘Falcon’ Set to Land After Seven-Year Asteroid Mission

June 11 (Bloomberg) -- A Japanese spacecraft, which may be
the first to gather samples from an asteroid, is scheduled to
return to earth this weekend after a seven-year journey.

Hayabusa, Japanese for “falcon,” is set to land at 11:30
p.m. Tokyo time on June 13 in the Woomera area of Australia,
said Tamihiro Yagioka, a Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency
spokesman.

The craft landed on the potato-shaped asteroid Itokawa in
November 2005. It’s not clear whether the spacecraft, which had
mechanical problems including fuel leaks and engine failures,
succeeded in its mission to collect samples.

Analyzing dust from the 540-meter long asteroid may help
scientists learn more about the origin and development of the
solar system, Yagioka said. The spacecraft has covered more than
6 billion kilometers (3.7 billion miles) since its launch in May
2003 under the 21 billion yen ($229 million) program.

The Japanese space agency is considering launching Hayabusa
II in 2014. Japan should aim to double the size of its space
industry to 15 trillion yen by 2020, a government agency said in
a report released on May 25.